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Music

Liberation’s New Video Is Full of Creeped Out Synth Lines and Desperation

The latest evolution of prolific West Australian David West takes inspiration from the heyday of Mute Records and is swathed in analogue and FM synths.

This article originally appeared on Noisey Australia.

Though it feels like we’ve written extensively about David West and his various musical guises over the last few years, the fact is we’ve only touched on a fraction of the West Australian songwriters generous output. From his solo work, to the guitar pop of Rat Columns, post-punk trio Rank/Xerox, not to mention his involvement in Lace Curtain, Burning Sensation, Total Control, and Whalehammer, the guy knows how to churn it out.

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His latest evolution is Liberation, a pop project that is said to take inspiration from the heyday of Mute Records and is swathed in analogue and FM synths. Currently based in New York City, a long way from his parents West Australian wheat farm, West is continuing to write, record, produce and maintain his healthy creative streak.

In the video for “Looking For a Lover” he’s teamed up with friend Louis Hopper to bring a dreamy and washed out feel to the mid-tempo song and creeped out synth lines.

The album will be released on Glasgow label Night School on June 11 and West will soon be heading out on a European tour.

Watch the video and read a short interview with David below.

Noisey: You’ve travelled quite a lot over the last ten years. How do different places affect your song writing?
David West: I'm not sure if being in different places geographically affects my songwriting at all, but the different circumstances of each one certainly has an impact. In Perth, I have a lot of space and time and I can get in the mood to stretch out and luxuriate in some leisurely studio waffling….in New York City, where I am at right now, one has much less space, possibly less time, so I'm pretty gung-ho on being more minimal and no messing about when it is time to kick out the jams.

Where was the LP written?
The Liberation LP was predominantly written in your town, Melbourne.

The video was produced with Louis Hooper. Who came up with the idea?
Louis is an inspiration and a delight to work with, a real aesthetic ally. That was shot in a share house that I was living in, in Leederville, an inner suburb of Perth. Well, I'm not sure if there are actually any ideas in that video! But if there are, they sprung from our combined consciousnesses…

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Liberation seems to be your most straight electro pop venture. Is it fun playing this kind of music?
That's interesting that you find it pretty straight up. It seems to me quite collage-y, in terms of ideas. It is fun, yeah, when it is not intensely painful.

You are about to head out to play some shows in Europe including some with CC Dust another performer who has moved away from punk stuff to more melodic and dancebale stuff. What are you expecting of the shows on tour?
Rat Columns played a show with CC Dust on an American tour a few years ago, on their home turf of Olympia, and they blew my mind, so I guess I'm expecting to have the remainder exploded over a classical fresco or two. As for the tour in general, to quote Wayne's World; "good food, good tunes, good buddies. Awesome party, man!"

Liberation will be released June 11 on Night School records.

Catch Liberation in Europe at these shows:
June 3 - Dublin, Tenterhooks +
June 4 - Aberdeen, The Tunnels +
June 7 - London, Bethnal Green Working Men's Club
June 8 - Glasgow, Stereo +
June 9 - Manchester, Gullivers +
June 11 - DIYSpace For London ^
June 12 - Hope and Ruin, Brighton ^
June 13 - Undertone, Cardiff ^
June 17 - Aarhus, Denmark *
June 21st - De Gym, Groningen *
June 23rd - Espace B, Paris *
June 25th - West Germany, Berlin *

* with Carla Da Forno (Blackest Ever Black)
+ with Apostille (Night School)
^ with CC Dust (Perennial, Night School)